Manufacture of hosiery



1936- P. LIEBERKNECHT 2,065,979

MANUFACTURE OF HOSIERY Filed Dec. 21, 1934 I7? venZ o/mf Fau Z L drier/(week? 5 M AZLZLOPTIEJ/Q' Patented Dec. 29, 1936' UNITED STATES.

PATENT ,OFFICE MANUFACTEJRE F nosmay Paul Lieberknecht, Einsiedel, near Chemnitz Germany 2 Claims. (c1. 66-187) This invention relates to a method of producing stockings, socks and the like having; French heels'on fiat,,full-fashioned hosiery machines, ac-- cording to which the leg and foot are made with 5 the same continuous thread or threads in one operation and the heel is worked subsequently. The present invention is an improvement over the disclosure in ap'plicants prior Patent No. 2,027,781 of January 14, 1936.

It has'beenproposed to effect the transition from the leg to the foot partly with and without the aid of separately made auxiliary portions, the latter being intended to facilitate the transferring of the initial courses of the side portions of the foot on the linking machine. When no auxiliary pieces are employed, the first .part of the foot cannot be made wider than the stocking at the end of the leg, as otherwise there would be no structurefor holding the goods during the transfer to the linkingmachine. I

It is the object of the invention to produce a stocking of the kind mentioned above without separately worked auxiliary portions, that is, a stocking in which the beginning of the'foot'may be any number of needles wider than the end of the leg to attain any desired fit of the hose structure at the ankle-joint relative to the heel.

According 'to the invention, prior to the working on of the separating courses when passing 30 "from the leg to the foot, the width of which towards the inside is smaller than that of the heels, and during the working of the last courses of the leg, an auxiliary part is worked beside themand to the left and-right of the leg on the same a needle bar at the point,provided for widening the foot, whereupon, after the finishing of the separating courses, the foot'is started as much. wider as the auxiliary portions indicate and, after the finishing of the foot part and subsequent transferring of the heel portions to the heel machine for the attachment of the heel. parts, the entire structure of the side andmiddle portions -of the foot positioned above the heel needles, together with the separating courses, is brought over and beyond the needle points to'the backs of the needles, either before or after the formation of the first heel course; finally, after the heel has been worked on, one of the first courses of the middle portion of the foot is" transferred to the needles of the linking machine and the separating courses are destroyed, whereupon the inner edge of the heel is united on the needles of the linking machine with the respective course of the side portion of the foot and the parts are removed.

auxiliary By way of example, the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 shows the middle portion of 'a stocking produced according to the invention, a special thread guide having been used for producing each auxiliary, 5 portion; and Fig. 2 shows a similar middle portion, in which the'auxiliary portions have been produced by thesame yarn guide that has worked also the high heel. i

. Referring to the drawing, while approximately 10 the last fifty courses of the leg a are simultaneously produced on the same needle bar. Before the foot part is made, the separating 15 courses e, e' are worked from both edgesu', d." of theleg within the heel width shown, which are somewhat shorter towards the middle of the structure than the heel portions themselves are wide, while the working of the middle portion b' of the stocking is continued. The separating courses e, e in the middlepor- .tion of the stocking shown extend also across, the auxiliary portions d, d, thoughit is possible to have them terminate in front of them. Then the foot part is started and completed, after which step the joined leg and foot are taken 01! from the machine and directly or indirectly transferred to the heel machine, whereupon the heels are worked on in the usual way. After completion of the heels one of the first courses oi each middle foot portion is transferred to the linking machine. The separating courses are then de-'-- stroyed and the inner edges of the heels united on the linking machine with the side portions of the foot and, simultaneously, both auxiliary portions removed.

In the structure shown in Fig. 1' the auxiliary portions d, d are worked by separate [yarn guides. As Fig. 2 indicates, the auxiliary portions can be 40 worked also without the help of separate yarn guides by causing the guides or carriers of the high heel'thread or ground thread or both guides to continue working for the requisite distance beyond the left and right-hand edge of the leg and thus form the auxiliary portions.

By separating courses is understood mesh courses or parts of such similarity as produced in the other mesh courses. They differentiate from them, however, by the length of the mesh 5 course and by the color or thereby that the sepa-" rating course consists merely of one thread while the meshes of the high heel with those of the sole parts consist of two threads. The name separating courses means that the mesh course is for 5 the purpose of subsequently being ripped open or cut 'open and for this purposeit must be easily recognizable. Separating courses may be made in accordance with U. 8. Patent No. 1,665,972 in which on page 2, line 70 thereof reference is made to the guide line courses I. In accordance with the present invention, the separating coursesections are or lesser length than the width of the heel sections which are indicated on the accompanying sketch byithe reference characters.

' a and a. The separating course e extends thus from the point It to the point i while the heel part extends from the point It tothe point It and is securely connected with the leg and foot. A

clearer explanation will be submitted in the following:

.First the leg (1 is produced. During the fabrication of the last mesh course of the' leg at the fing courses are provided on both ofits sides.

particular auxiliary portions d and d are simultaneously knitted adjacent thereto, which are.

the leg '0. 1

r If one beginsthe knitting of an auxiliary portion then the meshes will not be uniformly formed at the beginning on all of the needles but merely sporadically, and one must knit a plurality of mesh courses, at times twenty to iifty courses,

before the ,thread willbe taken up by all the needles, Such auxiliary portions are called preliminary courses. The parts .41 and d are'therefore nothing more than starting courses.

when the legs are produced the short separat- Thereafter the foot part b. is knitted in lur quired width. It is wider than the end of .the

'- leg :1 and it'notonly projects over the widthof ,the leg 0 but extends outto the auxiliary P rtions d'andd'. The middle portion b" consists of the middle foot part and of two sole parts.

When the foot part b is iinished'the hose is removed from the particular knitting machine and, by means of the separating courses e and e to which the heel portions g and g are to be added, impaled on the needles of another knitting machine. In. order that one 'cfi knit the heel portions without any difllculties, the leg as well as .the foot b, b are brought to the underside of the knitting needles, as clearly described in applicant's Patent No. 2,027,781. Now the heel parts 7 and a are knitted to 'thehose in which'the operation is carried out in a manner similar to the operation in knitting the leg 4 and the portions, b, b. The machine for making the heels is a slmilar flat knitting machine as the machine for knitting the legs. 1m, however,

"so set that the thread guide only over short mesh course pieces, since each of the two heel parts a and a are considerably smaller than the ,legs a. The mesh courses of the heel parts a and a willtherefore be knitted quicker than the leg parts. Thus theheel machine can operate appreciably quicker than the leg machine.

When the heel portions 9 and a are completed its edges! and 1' must be'connected with the beginning of the sole parts c and c longi-' tudinally 'of 'the separating courses c and e;

This'is' carriedout in known manner by means of a so-called Kettel machine. On the needles .of'the latter the first mesh course of, flie'sole parts 0 and c' are impaled Then theseparating courses e and e are ripped or cut open' whereby the auxiliary portions 4! and d are separated therefrom and a slit will be formed between the foot parts c and c' and the leg a whichwill have'such a. separation depending upon the length of the separating courses e and e. Then the edges l and l of the heel portions 9 and g are impaled on the needles of the Kettel machine and are connected with the beginning of the foot parts 0 and c in known manner. The aforementioned method which constitutes the subject matter of the present application differentiates from the method disclosed in applicalit's German- Patent No. 591,694 therebythat the beginning of the foot parts b, c and c. are ,.wider thanathe end of the leg part without it being necessary for this purpose to utilize specific auxiliary portions which wouldha've to be produced in a special way and wouldztake considerable time to impale them on the needles of the 3' forth.

The auxiliaryportions d and d which according .to the present invention are knitted adjacent the middle mesh course of the leg part are of entirely different nature than the portions u and it which are disclosed in the Hilsche'r patent ad'- J jacent the foot part. The parts t and u in accordan'ce withfiilscher are heel portions. They correspond to the partsva and g of applicant's invention and asa matter of fact'Hilscher admits that the heel parts it and u have a continuation of the main portion of the hose whe'mas according to the present invention the auxiliary portions d and d begin their fabrication without the necessity of knitting another portion on the particular needles on which they are produced and to which the parts 41 and d could be connected. The auxiliaryportionsd and d have, as

a matter of fact, a purpose to permit the courses to be maintained on the needles of each section of the knitting machine which will then permit the formation of the sole parts c and c" also on these needles but upon the ends of which part a is not knitted. There are. therefore, many differences between the needle parts u and u' -oi' Hils'cherwhlch are adjacent the foot portion, and the auxiliary portions d and dv which the applicantprovides adjacent thepart a., Apart from this it is to be noted that the knitting of the auxiliary portions d and d according to the present invention is to be considered only in thespeciflc construction" of a hose but not as a'v method in constructin'g the auxiliary portions themselves.

I claim:---

full-fashioned hosiery machine while working the foot directly onto the leg without transferring, which comprises inproducln Prior to the working of the separating courses when passing from r the legato the foot, whose width .towards the in- 1. A method ofproducing a stocking on-a flat "l starting the foot aiterthe finishing of the separating courses as much wider as the auxiliary portions indicate, transferring, after the finishing of the footv part and the subsequent transferring of the heel portions to the heel-machine for attaching the heel portions, the entire structure of the side and middle portions of thefoot located above the heel needles, together with the separating courses, over and beyond the needle points to the backs of the needles before the formation ofthe first heel course, transferring after working on the heel one of the first courses of the middle portion of the foot to the needles of a linking machine, removing the separating courses, uniting the inner edge of the heel on the needles of the linking maehine'with the respective course of the side part of the foot, and removing the auxiliary parts.

2. A'method according to claim'l, in which the moving of the entire structure of the sidev and middle portions of the foot located above the'heel needles, together with the separating courses, over and beyond the needle points to the backs of the needles is carried out after the iorm'ation'oi the first heel course.

, PAUL LIEBERKNECHT. 

